Exporting Impunity

European and US company executives could face fines and
even jail time for trading with Congolese logging companies accused of systematic
illegal logging and social and environmental abuses, Global Witness warns.

Our investigations into the Democratic Republic of
Congo’s (DRC) €87.1 million timber trade showed that logging companies are
routinely breaking forest protection laws and underpaying taxes. Two of the DRC’s biggest
loggers are allegedly complicit in the beating and raping of local populations,
with one company accused of complicity in the killing of a community member who took a stand
against their operations.

In 2014 at least €19.8 million DRC timber entered Europe and the
US, despite international trade laws aimed at keeping these markets clean. For
the first time, our report – Exporting
Impunity - shows where this timber is ending up.

We knew that DRC logging companies were breaking the law, but the extent of illegality is truly shocking. The EU and US are failing in their legal obligations to keep timber linked to illegal logging, violence and intimidation off our shop floors. Traders are cashing in on a multi-million dollar business that is pushing the world’s vanishing rainforests to extinction.
- Alexandra Pardal, Global Witness campaign leader.

The DRC is home to two-thirds of the
world’s second largest tropical rainforest. With little to no government
oversight, logging companies in the DRC enjoy free reign over an area of
rainforest equivalent to the size of Bulgaria, or the US State of Virginia.

Global Witness is calling on EU and US law enforcement
authorities to crack down on companies that are helping fund abuses. France and
Portugal are the biggest recipients of DRC timber globally after China. US, UK,
Spain and Belgium each imported at least half a million euro’s worth of DRC
timber in 2014.

“International traders are undeterred by the high-risk nature of
DRC timber. This needs to change. EU and US authorities should enforce their
laws and clamp down on this influx of illegal wood,” Pardal said. “If the
international community is serious about saving the world’s last rainforests,
it should stop lining the pockets of the people who plunder them.”

Under the EU’s Timber Regulation (EUTR) and the US’ Lacey Act,
companies are prohibited from importing timber that breaks the laws of the
producer country. In the US such violations are considered a criminal
offense.

Sanctions in the EU differ by country, but in France a violation
is punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a €100,000 fine. EU companies are
also obliged to carry out checks on their supply chains and screen out products
at risk of illegality.